2025-12-22
difference engine
Sam Matey has a comprehensive interview with Julian Gough on his theories around cosmological natural selection.
New issue of the LRB1 includes an interesting piece by Amia Snirivasan on psychoanalysis of the body politic. Regarding the question of whether “psychoanalysis incompatible with the respect we owe each other as ‘persons’”, there’s the interesting question of what it means if you think all your enemies have the same diagnosis, seeking total safety and binary simplicity2. If your conclusion is that you who is rational and everyone else is mad, then clearly that is placing yourself above in a position of undemocratic judgement. It’s interesting that she describes knowledge as “descriptive rather than prescriptive”, because it seems to me that situational awareness, coupled with a a coherent moral vision, is naturally prescriptive; if your diagnosis is accurate, it should be immediately evident “which levers to pull” to bring about your desired change. For Snrinivasan, organization through empathy and belonging. As Maia Mindel concludes, an end to “stupid status games” representing individualism and selfishness, and towards “actual, tangible gains in real material issues”. Unfortunately, it’s not clear to me that you can actually get one without the other, so keeping the two as tightly coupled as possible might be a better approach, rather than trying to eliminate the former and inadvertently severing their connection as a result.
Sarah Paine podcast on reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union. It seems to me that “it’s all of them” and “it was inevitable” are entirely compatible theories, in that it demonstrably took the accumulation of all of the described shocks in order for the USSR to fall, but that the underlying system would have no problems generating up more issues, had they been required.
Richard Hanania interview with Scott Sumner on various topics related to monetary theory and its implications. On the topic of how the public hates inflation more than macroeconomists think they should, it seems to me that this might be another area which is being intensified by the formal hiring systems being broken, since the ability to easily switch jobs is a required mechanism for inflation to be effectively cancelled out through wage increases. If I recall correctly, the public actually didn’t mind the period of “transitory” inflation so much, probably exactly because it was so easy to find jobs at that time.
Adam Bonica with a progressive case for YIMBYism, noting that environmental regulations are being primarily weaponized by NIMBY groups and individuals in an undemocratic manner.
Ben Pomeranz on his visit to Hanoi.
Flyover Takes on listening to Romantic era music.
Derek Lowe winter comfort foods recipes.
Also has a fun review of a biography of Walter Lippman expressing dissatisfaction with the current media environment.
Somewhat related, Andrés Gómez Emilsson on diagnosing social media accounts by their posting patterns. Also, CHH as a self-described case study of the OCD poster.